The Meatless Ground Beef Brand You Should Ignore At The Grocery Store

Going meatless has gone way beyond Mondays — and vegans and vegetarians. In fact, research by Sprouts Farmers Market (a grocer with an unexpected shopping benefit) in 2021 found that 1 in 2 Americans consume more plant-based meals than they do meat. Recent research from Numerator has also found that nearly 17 million US households identify as "flexitarians" — that is, people who primarily eat vegetarian and consume meat occasionally. The rise and accessibility of meat alternatives is in no doubt a driver of that, but that isn't to say all of the options you'll find at the store are going to convert you. Some might even push you further away. At least, that's the case for one meatless ground beef brand.

In our taste tester's ranking of 10 meatless ground beef brands, Everything Legendary's plant-based ground beef stood out from the rest — but only because they could practically smell the stench of it through the packaging. Our taste testers tried to be nice by writing it off as a bad batch, but customers agree that its by far the worst plant-based meat alternative they've ever tried. People have gone as far as to compare the smell, taste, and texture to cat food, and some have even called it worse. Others have compared it to "rehydrated vegan jerky," with an oddly wet yet dried up texture. "Just weird" is a recurring descriptor. If you see this meatless ground beef in the store, the best thing you can do is pretend you didn't.

Everything Legendary's founders appeared on an episode of "Shark Tank" Season 12, and they pitched a pretty legendary sell to the show's panel of investors. The founder, Duane Myko, noted the burgers are made by a real chef rather than scientists, and even went as far as to call his burgers the plant-based equivalent of Kobe beef. Upon tasting, Kevin O'Leary proclaimed it to be the best plant-based burger he'd ever tasted, and together with his friends and co-founders, Cheers landed a $300,000 investment deal.

Within the first 24 hours of the episode airing, Everything Legendary sold more than $250,000 worth of burgers. The initial reviews of orders were positive, but something has obviously changed. These couldn't possibly be the same burgers that the Sharks tasted, and some customers have even speculated that it may have something to do with the co-packers included in the deal they made with Mark Cuban, meaning the production and manufacturing of the beef has been outsourced.

Co-packing deals have broke "Shark Tank" deals in the past, and it would explain the drastic difference in the quality of Everything Legendary's beef. Either way, this beef is far off from the supposed Kobe-equivalent the Sharks got to try — and there's no way that they wouldn't have noticed the smell. When it comes to beef-less ground beef brands, our advice is to ignore Everything Legendary and stick with the Impossible Burgers 2.0.